When Art and Science Collide: Arts at CERN

Abstract

Located in Geneva, Switzerland, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (from the French Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) is an immense international research project in particle physics that inquires into the origin and composition of the universe under the motto "CERN accelerating science." One interesting study aims at demonstrating the theory behind the Brout-EnglertHiggs mechanism, that the whole universe existed within a field (the Higgs field) after the Big Bang, which would have allowed the particles to interact and have mass. This would ultimately explain how we exist. In order to pursue the research, extensive means have been employed over several decades. Anyone visiting the premises cannot but be impressed by the vastness and magnitude of the initiative. In order to fully describe it, one has to resort to impressive if not showy numbers: the underground facilities of the now famous Large Hadron Collider consist of an imposing ring that measures twenty-seven kilometers, is buried approximately one hundred meters underground, and is so big that it crosses the border between Switzerland and France. No fewer than two thousand people employed by CERN run its daily activities, and nearly ten thousand scientists from over one hundred countries have collaborated over several decades. Finally, what could be more impressive than this?: CERN scientists' collisions of particles are described as the hottest spots in the universe, hotter than the sun--or, to be precise: one hundred thousand times hotter than the center of the sun (albeit for an extremely short period of time). It is in this unique context that international cultural strategist and curator Ariane Koek initiated, designed, and directed Arts at CERN (formerly Arts@CERN) to give time and space for artists and scientists to explore and work together. Since 2011, Arts at CERN has hosted a series of residency programs for artists. (1) Yet the uniqueness of Arts at CERN is not just that artists can visit and be inspired by CERN. Its uniqueness lies in offering artists the opportunity to meet scientists and to learn about and become immersed in various scientific theories and problems without any expected or defined product or outcome. Arts at CERN's mottos are "Colliding Art and Science" and "Great Arts for Great Science"--and the result is captivating. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of the first artworks produced from the art/science "collision" is Versuch unter Kreisen (2012) by German artist Julius von Bismarck. In the exhibition space, four industrial lights hang from the ceiling, rotating in motorized patterns. As viewers enter the space, they automatically try to identify the patterns, but the lights move between order and chaos, between law and disorder. Although there is no overall regular circling of the lights, the mind tries to recognize a law to rationalize them, and this is the most interesting aspect of the piece. There is a pressing need to understand the "nature" of the lights. The "enlightening" installation therefore oscillates between an apparent comprehension of the patterns and a lack of comprehension. It ultimately offers a vibrating metaphor for both art and science: the search for nature's disciplined laws and irrational beauty, and the lost and regained understanding of nature as seen through the succession of discoveries and theories. A more recent work produced at CERN is Horizons Irresolus (2016) by Swiss artists Rudy Deceliere and Vincent Hanni, physicist Robert Kieffer, and cosmologist Diego Bias, and produced by the association POWA. In one of CERN's warehouse facilities, a web of 888 micro-synthesizers and speakers was installed like a Milky Way of crackling sound and sparkles. Each of the speakers has the same algorithm and receives, analyzes, and emits varied information and sounds to and from its three neighbors. The speakers, which are usually hidden in multimedia installations, are here laid bare. …